Comments

Comment by Tempo

Laugh if you like, but slam is handy with a slow two-hander. I like it more than Mortal Strike. It's got a low rage cost, and after the 2.0.1 patch, the Improved talent costs just two points and reduces the cast time by a full second. If you are sitting at 100 rage, chaining six or seven Slams in the span of just a few seconds is obscene.

Comment by Everclarity

Although the concept of casting in combat (outside of using First Aid) makes almost any warrior cringe, Slam is a very effective raid or party DPS tool, as it causes no additional threat and results in one melee swing between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds, depending on spec. Try it for a replacement of HS when your threat is hovering a bit too high, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Comment by Override

Does slam reset the attack timer now?

Comment by Eggy

Yes, it resets the attack timer.

Comment by jinnerswow

Hmm, the Wowhead explanation states that the weapon damage, when calculated for the purposes of Slam, is not "normalised." Does that mean that it is much better to use a Slow 3.8s 2her and just spam it like no tommorrow?

Btw, I have analysed Slam v Mortal Strike. I am assuming that you can spam it. Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Sounds to me that when Slam is UNTALENTED, MS is likely to outdamage Slam overall. However, if Slam is TALENTED, you could take advantage of an interim swing AND spam it 5 times in the same period.

Comment by jinnerswow

In conclusion, I believe that Slam outdamages MS significantly if, and only if, it is talented with Improved Slam.

Comment by Asmael

Global Cooldown... You can use Slam only once each 1.5 sec... Talent only helps to cast it uninterupted. (Well not totaly uninterupdet but more easy :P )

Comment by Sardoom

Slight error in your math: When it says "weapon damage" it means counting attack power (that's what gets normalized to 3.3). Your math says that only the autoattack swings get damage from attack power. Attack power is already part of W, and you're adding it in again.Your numbers would come out to 3W+420 vs 4W + 560, meaning slam spam outdamages although at increased cost. Efficiency depends on relative value of W.

Comment by Xelopheris

In the example above, he was showing a weapon with 3.3 speed, which is the same speed that 2h attacks are normalized to. 'W' can be used to represent autoattack damage and normalized instant attack damage.

That said, assuming a 3.3 speed weapon, and slam in your rotation, with .2 second lag, it would take 4 seconds to get an autoattack then a slam.

You also made a big mistake with your MS example. You should always end a cycle where it can be immediately repeated. Here's an example cycle:Autoattack MS Autoattack MS Autoattack MS Autoattack etc.Here's the portion you took: MS Autoattack MS

You left 6 seconds where MS is on cooldown unmentionned.

You also neglected talent spec into anything. An MS warrior has 2h damage talent, impale, weapon specialization talent, possibly blood frenzy, all sorts of stuff. The fury war has improved berserker stance, bloodthirst, precision, deathwish, and still able to get 2 points into imp 2h damage and get full impale.

Comment by Skulver

If you are using a decent 2 hander (about a 3.6 speed) it is easy to see that slam should beat Mortal strike for damage per rage.

Now, lets take a sample 36 second time period (assuming always sufficient rage available).

Now, suppose you do Autoattack->slam->autoattack->slam 12 times in a row.

It will take you 12 * (3.6 + 1.5) = 61.2 seconds and you will do:24 autoattacks + 2160 damage total.

In 61.2 seconds you can do 17 autoattacks, lets add in 6 mortal strikes as well (to use an equal amount of rage to the 12 slams).

So using mortal strike you do:23 autoattacks + 1260 damage total.

It is clear here that for the same time used slam does more damage than using the same rage cost of mortal strike with slam unimproved if, and its a big if, you have perfect slam usage.

It does however seem reasonable that with 2/2 improved slam you could achieve a level of efficiency surpassing that listed here.

When Flurry procs however you lose some efficiency on slam. since that 0.5 seconds is a greater proportion of the time to autoattack. Assuming flurry was always active I suspect slam would still win out but it would be much closer.

Comment by Achillius

does this stun or break spells?

Comment by skywyze

No. Consider it speeding up a slow weapon. With Improved Slam, you can go from 3.8 attack speed to 0.5, greatly increasing your damage output. It's a bit heavy on the rage side though, and it requires some timing to pull off right, but I've seen some people using builds where this actually pays off way more than heroic strike.

Quite gear and talent dependant though.

Comment by Colossis

I don't think a mob or opposing player will survive 24 auto attacks + 12 MS/Slam assuming you will use rend and overpowered whenever possible.

Comment by Carighan

Slam is fascinating.It has a 1.5s casttime, it works like Huntershots (if you know how to time it, you don't reset your swingtimer at all), it deals massive damage.

Effectively, it shortens your recoil time, significantly. Use a very slow 2Her (makes it easier to time), and then a mod which shows your swingtimer to know when to press it. Press it right after the swingtimer starts again after a white swing. It should finish casting + hit before the swingtimer runs through, resulting in not losing the white hit.(same concept as Hunter's Steady Shot)

It is mostly a PvE skill though. Even with ImpSlam, you need to stand still for 0.5seconds, which you more often than not can't in PvP.

Comment by Naraoth

I'm thinking about using a hybrid spec, having both Slam and MS when doing PvE dps. The weapon is Thunder, the Macesmith two-hander.

Now, the thing that's been bothering me a bit.. will Slam procc the Mace Specialization stun thing and more importantly, will it procc on the Chance on Hit thing on the upgraded versions of Thunder?

Comment by Warlo

Use slam. Heroic Strike isn't normalized because it's an on-next-swing attack, but even so, that is one white swing that you won't be getting rage from, instead of just delaying your next one by 1.5 secs, you're delaying your rage gen. by a full swing.

Comment by coredumperror

Ok, so I've never played a warrior, so if I sound like a complete newb... I am. But I'm a huge theory crafter, and there's a dw fury war in my guild that was talking about specing imp slam at one point.

Since I'm not a warrior, and I don't remember the entire conversation, I'm wondering: would there be any reason at all that he'd spec imp slam and continue DWing, rather than going MS? I don't remember the specifics of what he was saying, but sounded like he wanted to continue DWing, and benefit from effectively getting an extra MH swing at the cost of only .5 seconds (by starting slam right after each white attack). Would this work for PvE dps? Does slam reset your OH swing timer?

Comment by dots

With an addon like quartz you can time your slam immediately after a weapon swing to get in an extra attack at the cost of 0.5-1.5s for a cheap 15 rage and no additional threat.

In PvE, Slam out-performs Heroic Strike for DPS output. Heroic Strike also costs 15 rage (9-12 depending on talents) but will ALSO eat the rage gain AND white damage of your next attack. Slam effectively does the same job, but only costs 0.5-1.5s to do the damage instead of a full weapon-swing. Theoretically speaking, any weapon above 0.5/1.5s will gain more benefit from slam over heroic strike given that you can cast it immediately after a swing timer, and moreso for any 3.0+ speed 2h weapon

Slam-SpammingSince Warriors have a GCD of 1.5s, a non-talented Slam is viable for spamming if you need to liquidate your rage for DPS, and it will do so more effeciently than HS and with less aggro. Here, there is no benefit to have the talent.

More InfoCan be found here at WoWWiki. Hopefully this has been an educational post for all 2h DPS warriors to raise their effectiveness in raids.

Comment by Calminaion

That all looks ok, except for the fact that Slam cast time is UN-interruptable (I'm assuming that's what you meant to say)

It used to be interruptable, but they changed that a while back.

Comment by Mistopheles

Using a 6 second time period makes no sense to calculate two MS's, as you should use a 5.9 second one and have the thing "loop"; otherwise after the last MS in the cycle you won't be back at the start.

Comment by Mistopheles

Remember that Slam is also affected by impale so the extra "white hit + damage" you'll gain is clearly more than a white hit with that much bonus damage, given a 2h warrior's huge chance to crit in raids.

Comment by diag

I think it is a good skill to use when you level up, because of the lack of instant skills, you have to use heroic strike. Until you get mortal strike or blood thrist, this should be the best rage dumping skill.

note:However slam dps is quite advanced for a leveling warrior.

Comment by diag

I think slam could be the best spec to level up, especially in the 30-40 bracket, because this is the best rage dump skill in these levels. The is going from 15 rage heroic strike for 40 dmg to 15 rage for 150 dmg at lvl 30.

As I am leveling up my second warrior, I use improved slam in my lvl 30's. The difference between lvl 29 dw heroic strike and lvl 30 imp slam is quite obvious, using imp slam while leveling is like using deep thunder to farm lvl 64 mobs.

The usual rotation I use at 30's is, charge, when you have stunned the mob, wait for 0.5 sec, press slam, then a white hit and slam will hit the mob in the same time.

i.e.charge, white, slam, white slam....

However you need to have some rage before you charge to do this, so I dont use execute usually. I am using mixture of blue weapon and green armor, and I can generate around 15 rage for every white hit versus a same lvl mob.

Slam is also good for lvl 70 farming (even for prot ), the rotation is usually,charge, vr, white, (these 3 strikes at the same time), ms, white, slam, white slam...

If you are prot, just skip the ms, amazing dmg vs devastate.

Comment by waaagh

Can anyone confirm if the cast time is reduced by flurry, bloodlust, or haste rating? (like hunter steadyshot / aimedshot)

Comment by Nochin

The casting time is not affected by flurry. I don't know about plain haste rating as i didn't have any when i used slam.

Comment by Arterdras

I'm still a bit confuzzled as to wether slam is supposed to go off right after or right before an auto-attack...can someone clarify?

Comment by 40642

Right after. Slam resets your auto-attack timer which can be said to be the same as "losing" the time that has passed since the previous auto-attack, and losing 0.1 seconds is better than losing 3.5.

Comment by Arterdras

Are there any mods that show your swing timer?

Comment by soultwister

General idea for using Slam in PvE is to do "Slam rotation". This trick works well with weapons over 3.0 speed. If you only have enough Rage you should be able to do this:

Works great if you can time it and if you haven't got problems with Rage. Dig it on WoWwiki's Slam section for more info, this is just a preview.

Comment by Solassan

Slam is an important part of this spec's dps. Slam resets your swing timer so it's best timed directly after a white hit (in order to minimize time wasted on a reset swing). Get an addon such as Quartz to help if you have latency problems, practice on some Blasted Lands mobs for Slam timing. Learn to use Slam. Generally this cycle is:Auto -> Slam -> MS -> Auto -> Slam -> WW -> Auto -> Slam -> MS -> Auto -> Slam -> InstantBattle Shout or Demoralizing Shout for example can be used as the last instant in the rotation. This rotation is commonly referred to as 4xSlam, 2xMS, 1xWW. One thing to note about Slam usage, if your attack speed goes below 2.5 seconds, drop Slam from your cycle and use Heroic Strike to manage your rage. Another option is to simply Slam only when Mortal Strike and Whirlwind are both on cooldown. This requires some practice and a feel for the play-style.

Comment by Xenosteel

Comment by madmenrus

I really hate this move it is useless, i mean cast time, less damage than heroic strike 4 gods sake blizz! >(

(although straight after an attack would be quite nifty)

Comment by Aragdar

Heroic Strike only adds damage to your next attack, Slam gives you a brand new one!

Comment by Tigerlil

Calculate the DPS of your slams and compare them to the DPS of your Heroic Strike, and you will change your mind Madmenrus. Yes, just by looking at it, it doesnt seem worth it...but with a slow 2h axe it is 1,5-4 times the DPS of heroic strike for exactly the same rage cost (untalented). Even better is that since slam only suspends your white damage swings, you actually get rage once in a while from the odd white damage attack that hits...you dont with heroic strike.

Heroic strike is now a tank move, and should not be seen in any 2handed weapon wieldings rotation if they know what is good for them. Is my opinion. I guess you CAN swap it in if youre really skilled, but it should not be at the cost of other, far superior moves like Slam.

Rage does not seem to be a problem for me either, with improved Charge, and bloodrageing every time it is ready, I have plenty of range to do Splam (spam slam).

Another rather important thing to notice about Slam is that it has no knockback on the casting, so it will always be 0,5 or 1,5 cast time.

Comment by myluc

So im out leveling my skills spaming hamstring and for some reason i decided to hit slam.. It gave me 2 weapon skill points majority of the time so if you have a really slow weapon use slam to burn that rage for 2 points ever now and then

Comment by bkwow

Heroic Strike actually costs more than Slam (even fully talented in most cases), when you consider the the foregone rage from giving up a white hit.

Comment by HoonX

This is usefull for rage dump. Arms warriors should use this after using Mortal Strike, apply rend and there's no Taste for Blood buff. Considering the GCD and talented skill cast, you can use twice Slam before next swing of a 3.6seg 2h axe. It's good for PvE, but in PvP is nice if your target is snared.

Comment by Hockee

* The Death of Slam for Level 39 Twink Warriors - Name: Slam (Rank 2) aka 'Slammy' - Died: At the young age of 1 year, 9 months, 5 days - Residence: Patch 2.4.3 - Day and date of death: October 14, 2008 - Place of death: Patch 3.0.2 - Cause of death: Improved Slam (Fury tier 5) moved to (Arms tier 7).

* SERVICE - October 21, 2008 during normal Realm maintenance hours. - Please, we only request you remember how wonderful this attack was with a moment of silence. - Place of interment: The vast Internet. - Where to call for more information: Blizzard Customer Support 1-949-955-1382

* REMEMBRANCE - Three words that sum up Slam's life - Solid, Efficient, Lethal - Thank you for all the fun times we had, the massive amount of HK's accumulated, we'll all miss you. - Slam's final statement before their final Server Shutdown:

"Instead of asking - 'How much damage will the attack in question bring about?' why not ask - 'How much death? How much destruction?'

Comment by Jarrho

That is because your suspended autoattack happens right when your slam lands, and both of those attacks give you a skill point. If you're leveling weapon skills, you'd be much better off using Hamstring, since it costs less rage, does low damage, and doesn't lose you any autoattacks.

Comment by Keelerak

This spell is quite needless, Heroinc Stirke causes more damage, is an instant cast and doesnt cost more rage than Slam (with talents it can cost less rage)

So, is this spell for anything?

Comment by Ianbray

doesnt cost more rage than Slam

True, but keep in mind that Heroic Strike also has a hidden rage cost because it replaces your next melee swing. Since you don't generate rage through special abilities, you're forfeiting the rage you would have received from that "white" hit.

Comment by Ianbray

doesnt cost more rage than Slam

True, but keep in mind that Heroic Strike also has a hidden rage cost because it replaces your next melee swing. Since you don't generate rage through special abilities, you're forfeiting the rage you would have received from landing that "white" hit.

Comment by Ultros

Can anyone confirm if haste speeds up the cast time for this uh "spell"?

Comment by Rengeki830

If, say, there is 2 seconds until the next swing, and you cast this, do you wait 2 seconds after the slam for the next swing or does the timer continue to go down during the slam?

Comment by Palladinboy

As of patch 3.0.2 it doesn't, before that the timer would go down to 0.

Comment by Tentaclewarrior

best rage burning tactic I've ever used, spam slam mofo.

Comment by shotzo

Im not sure if it was a bug or not but I noticed that slam gives you two ranks of skill per casting (essentially acting like you attacked twice)

useful for leveling low level weapons :p

Comment by Shinsei

What part of

Patch 3.0.2 notes:

"Slam now suspends the weapon swing timer rather than resetting it".

Dint you understand?

If you got 2 seconds until next auto hit and Cast a Improved Slam. there will be 1.5 sec till next auto hit after the slam hits.You can literally spam your slam while your auto hits keep going in, keeping your rage up.If you still don't get it. look at this.

Before 3.0.2 it would look like this.|****||""""|""""|""""|""""|""""|""""|""""|"Resetting the hit after the Slam. (assuming you got a 3.6 weapon)Delaying your originally auto hit time by (2.1) sec (assuming you ain't making another slam before your auto hit, which will delay it further.)

After 3.0.2 It would look more like this.|****|""""|""""|""""|

Your auto hit timer is unaffected by slam and will continue as normal.

"How ever if you make a slam less than 0.5 sec before your auto hit, It will be delayed until the Slam hits"

Comment by leuitinet

ok im planning a 39 twink arms warrior, and sadly my lvl falls short of being able to spec into imp slam... My question is this: Does the slam casting break while moving, or is it like an explosive and will continue to cast until it finishes or is interrupted? If it doesnt break while moving, i could pop bloodrage, charge, cast slam while charging reach my target slam hits, than auto hit, and ect. Does that sound about right?

Comment by Hospy

You can't move while casting Slam.

It's a terrible skill for pvp.

Comment by kinabear

Okay, I read all these comments and I still dont really understand what I should be doing. I am a Warrior, intending to use a 55/8/8 spec. Right now, Im level 35. Should I be using slam instead of heroic strike now? All I really do is cycle through rend, TC, OP when it comes up, and heroic strike. Would slamming over heroic strike improve my DPS? And even so, once Im at max level, I intend to glyph for Heroic Strike, and use it and OP to keep Deep Wounds on my PVP targets up at all times. So at level eighty, should I even bother slamming?

Comment by gamerunknown

Comment by Pradator

can this move actually cast while running cause last time i played a warrior u had to stand still and it silenced the target for a few seconds...by the looks of it, its changed alot.

Comment by Nighteyes

I've actually found that an arms warrior specced for improved Slam, improved/glyphed Rend, and improved Overpower can usualy out DPS one doing mortal strikes even if the slamming Warrior has with lesser gearing. Mortal strike even when fully speced (an extra 4 talent points) is a high rage cost, still takes a global CD, and doesn't do much more damage then an extra slam would. At twice the rage cost MS is not twice the damage, so a cycle of Rend-slam-slam-overpower-slam-slam-overpower is maintainable rage-stable whereas most MSing warriors will have rage depleation issues unless higher geared.

The only downside to a slam-based spec and cycle I have found is that moving fights are really hard to dps, since the minor half second pause might take the enemy out of strike range. during moving/running fights however you can still maintain rend, melee, overpower, and executes.

I do fully agree however, Heroic Strike is a TERIBLE idea also due to a tiny bit of text at the bottom. ... and causes a high amount of threat.. if you WANT to pull agro while not even being that high a dps, go ahead and use Heroic Strike.

Comment by Orthis

Hm. Zero second cast in WoWHead cata?

dont think this is gonna be instant.

Comment by Orthis

This ability uses your main hand for those fury warriors wondering which weapon this hits with.

Comment by deadralord

the reason they have this and heroic strike is heroic strike gets you aggro

Comment by Aaro

Solid post, except for this:

... and causes a high amount of threat.. if you WANT to pull agro while not even being that high a dps, go ahead and use Heroic Strike.

You don't seem to understand that tanks generate far more threat than DPS due to stances/auras/etc. When a tank does it, yes -- high threat is high threat, and it's very powerful. But when a DK uses Death & Decay or Runic Strike in their normal rotations, they're getting more DPS -- high threat, yes, but nothing the tank can't outmatch. If this was a situation where it was an AoE, I'd understand your sentiments, but this is a single target move. A moderately geared tank will beat a high geared DPS in threat any day, because while DPS only have this as a high threat generator, tanks have a large variety of high threat moves in addition to the threat buff.

Comment by chop360

Sorry but does "suspends the weapon swing timer" mean the time between your white hits (melee autoattacks) pauses?

Comment by Hokan

I am sorry to jack this post, but I am pleased to say that as of Patch 4.0.1, slam is castable while moving! (Please correct me if this changes)

Comment by mydognamedrikki

Yes it is castable while moving has of 4.0.1

Comment by ArMeDSuRvIvOr

Can't believe no one said this yet. Slam can be used while moving now! It now has a PvP use, even if it takes half a second to pull off! (when talented, of course) and it won't hurt as much as it did in PvE in high mobility fights!

War Academy talent = +15% damage to Slam

Improved Slam = +20% damage to Slam plus -1 sec cast time.

Also, in the latest beta build, Slam has had its rage cost reduced to 15. It's going to be pretty good for Arms now, I reckon. It will hit hard, you will be able to move while hitting hard and it's one of the cheapest abilities, rage wise.

Comment by ArMeDSuRvIvOr

1) With War Academy and Improved Slam plus the buff it got in the latest patch, it does similar weapon damage (if not higher) than Mortal Strike. IIRC its plus damage is even higher than MS. With a 15 rage cost and taking into account lost rage from the pausing of the swing timer (which is minimal, let's be honest! 0.5 delay in the swing timer isn't THAT much!), is at least equal to MS in terms of rage cost. It will hit harder than MS, without the Lambs to the Slaughter, of course.

2) By cheap, I mean it has had its rage cost reduced by 5. It used to be 20. Relatively, its still one of the cheapest attacks. Also, the fact that it's cheaper means you can use it earlier than other instant weapon strikes (like Heroic Strike, Colossus Smash and Mortal Strike) which means you can burst faster.

3) Yes, I get delighted because you can use it while moving. Previously you couldn't. Now you can. It's a good step towards improving this rather useless ability in PvP. Isn't that enough to be happy about it?

Also, "the target still has to be in melee range and in front of you, which makes it a lot trickier to actually pull off even if you are moving." really applies to ALL melee attacks for ALL melee classes. This point is invalid.

4) Technically speaking, the only abilities that hit harder than Slam are Mortal Strike and Bladestorm; if fully talented, it hits harder than anything else, except maybe Execute.

But yes, I agree that other abilities have a higher priority over Slam. However, Blizzard wants to give us choices this expansion (they've said it all the time during Cataclysm development) and I believe Improved Slam could be a useful "choice" talent for PvP. You can take it and have another attack at your disposal, or leave it and pick something else.

5) Furthermore, when you think about it, an Arms warrior only really has 3 attacks* (that are not cooldowns, like Bladestorm). Mortal Strike, Overpower and Heroic Strike/Cleave (and Colossus Smash, but on a rather lengthy cooldown). What if Colossus Smash and MS are on cooldown, Overpower still needs a few more Rend ticks to be usable and maybe you don't have enough rage for a Heroic Strike while needing to burst down a target ASAP? Or what if you don't have rage for your HIGH RAGE COST abilities?

You Slam the crap outta that annoying mage, for a cheap 15 rage.

*I left out Rend for obvious reasons.

Comment by ArMeDSuRvIvOr

1) With War Academy and Improved Slam plus the buff it got in the latest patch, it does similar weapon damage (if not higher) than Mortal Strike. IIRC its plus damage is even higher than MS. With a 15 rage cost and taking into account lost rage from the pausing of the swing timer (which is minimal, let's be honest! 0.5 delay in the swing timer isn't THAT much!), is at least equal to MS in terms of rage cost. It will hit harder than MS, without the Lambs to the Slaughter, of course.

2) By cheap, I mean it has had its rage cost reduced by 5. It used to be 20. Relatively, its still one of the cheapest attacks. Also, the fact that it's cheaper means you can use it earlier than other instant weapon strikes (like Heroic Strike, Colossus Smash and Mortal Strike) which means you can burst faster.

3) Yes, I get delighted because you can use it while moving. Previously you couldn't. Now you can. It's a good step towards improving this rather useless ability in PvP. Isn't that enough to be happy about it?

Also, "the target still has to be in melee range and in front of you, which makes it a lot trickier to actually pull off even if you are moving." really applies to ALL melee attacks for ALL melee classes. This point is invalid.

4) Technically speaking, the only abilities that hit harder than Slam are Mortal Strike and Bladestorm; if fully talented, it hits harder than anything else, except maybe Execute.

But yes, I agree that other abilities have a higher priority over Slam. However, Blizzard wants to give us choices this expansion (they've been saying it all the time during Cataclysm development) and I believe Improved Slam could be a useful "choice" talent for PvP. You can take it and have another attack at your disposal, or leave it and pick something else.

5) Furthermore, when you think about it, an Arms warrior only really has 3 attacks (that are not cooldowns, like Bladestorm). Mortal Strike, Overpower and Heroic Strike/Cleave (and Colossus Smash, but on a rather lengthy cooldown). What if Colossus Smash and MS are on cooldown, Overpower still needs a few more Rend ticks to be usable and maybe you don't have enough rage for a Heroic Strike while needing to burst down a target ASAP? Or what if you don't have rage for your HIGH RAGE COST abilities?

You Slam the crap outta that annoying mage, for a cheap 15 rage.

Comment by Benegesserit

What if Colossus Smash and MS are on cooldown, Overpower still needs a few more Rend ticks to be usable and maybe you don't have enough rage for a Heroic Strike while needing to burst down a target ASAP?

So in other words you're saying a lengthy and convoluted scenario is worth two talent points?

Comment by gulkash

With 4.0.6 on the way and a whole mess of HS nerfs coming with it, this ability MAY actually become useful to arms warriors again, which seems to be what Bliz is trying to do. Main problem in my eyes is that for that .5 sec that you're casting slam, you're not doing white dmg, which means you're not generating rage, which is obviously bad, especially from the stance of a PVE arms warrior.

Comment by makron

-Slam cast time is now affected by haste.

In addition to this, global cooldown on slam seems to be now modified by haste as well ( you can still chain unimproved slam with enough haste to lower cast to 1.2s levels )

Comment by Zergan

To do some INSANE damage get the Fury talent-Single minded fury

Comment by DraaxxTV

Slam can be a great filler for dpsing in both PvE and PvP. The best way to use slam is when Mortal Strike and are on cooldown and you just used a double Overpower by timing your buff. It is not worth using slam over any of the other abilities listed above but it "fills the gaps".

Comment by Mookosh

This is one of the few melee attacks in the game that is not normalized based on weapon speed. It does straight weapon damage+modifiers.

For Arms, this often is the hardest hitting ability outside of Execute phase.

It still has lower priority than Mortal Strike because of reliance on uptime and maintaining It has a lower priority to because, well its C. Smash.

All other Arms damage abilities have lower priority than Slam except unless you are about to loose your proc.

Comment by Katalo

Hey, I had a question I was hoping someone could answer. I am leveling a warrior, currently 72, expressly for PvP and I can't imagine a reason you would want to use Taste for Blood at all when I can just Slam instead of Overpower. Slam doesn't require me to dump a precious global on applying Rend, it doesn't require me to watch procs; I just keep MS and CS on cooldown then Slam away. Simple.

Now that Unrelenting Assault is gone, Overpower is just another melee hit. It just happens to be weaker than Slam in everything apart from the beefy crit chance, which I think is overshadowed by the GCD saved by not using Rend and Slam also being able to benefit from the Juggernaut crit buff. The 3 free talent points are nice too.

If anyone could present a counter argument in favor of Overpower, I would appreciate it.

Comment by Mrjoeybananas

Argument for Overpower as requested below:With Lambs to the Slaughter you don't need to waste globals on putting up rends, and honestly if u can't watch 1 simple proc which is timed evenly every five seconds then play a different class. Overpower is up to 185% + nasty crit levels with 3/3 Lambs to the Slaughter and Glyph of Overpower. If anything you should be fitting your slams into your rotation of overpower and MS instead of fitting overpower into your slam rotation. This move is essential to fighting rogues in pvp too.

Comment by taohinton

In response to the request for an explanation of Overpower:

Firstly, don't believe the tooltip; Overpower does significantly more damage than Slam. It cannot be dodged, parried or blocked, and Taste for Blood procs will probably have a 100% crit rate, not only increasing its damage but proccing Deep Wounds a lot more often.

Lambs to the Slaughter allows Mortal Strike to refresh Rend. This means it only needs to be applied once, and from then on deals constant damage without costing any further rage or globals. In addition, Rend procs Blood Frenzy, causing the target to take 4% extra physical damage. It also applies Trauma, increasing all bleed damage taken by 30%. The single global is therefore well-spent in any combat lasting more than say 10 seconds.

So, since Rend is definitely worthwhile, the remaining question is whether it is worth talenting Taste for Blood. Most importantly, Overpower simply deals more damage than Slam. Watching <Overpower> pop up in big yellow letters is so ridiculously simple it doesn't even qualify as 'watching'. Pretty much, when the big letters come up, you hit Overpower some time in the next 4.5 seconds (3 globals). Simple.

As regards Juggernaut, the buff should always be used for MS (since it hits harder and so produces more additional damage), unless it's on cooldown.

The simple fact of the matter is, spending points in Taste for Blood (and using the consequent Overpower procs) leads to higher dps - try it for yourself. Regardless of procs, it also improves Overpower's damage significantly - by around 55% when Impale and Deep Wounds are factored in - which is already a key ability for Arms. Since you'll already have Rend up, using it simply increases your damage output, in a way which is also impossible for opponents to block, dodge or parry.

The only valid point I can see, is whether even more benefit could be gained from spending those points elsewhere.

I am doubtful.

Comment by dukenukemi

I miss old Slam.. It was cool to cast it and wait some epic crit. Of course it´s now better when there is no cast time but still.

Comment by MrJumpingBean

None of the current photos show, but in-game Slam has its own unique animation where your character literally slams the opponent with the weapon. To me its a cool detail! You can see it in model viewer called "Slam"